Seeking Information

Oliver Benjamin Lowell is the leader of a Christian Separatist group with ties in both the United States and Northern Europe, and which goes by the name PURE. He is sought in connection to the hijacking of 4 passenger jets on 7/27/06 in South Asia.

Contributors

UPDATE: NEW ACCESS PRIVILEGES!

SIRAJ SAYS: Given my US citizenship and deployment overseas with Al Jazeera, the editors have asked that I enable privacy features after this blog turned up on Google. Fortunately, and despite recent events, I have not been prohibited from contacting friends or family. However, as of December 16, 2006 I have been asked to 'restrict access to authorized users only'. Therefore on December 20 I'm blunting the RSS Feed until further notice. Check your inbox for a login name and password. If you are reading this and your name is not one of the following, please log off this site NOW: Siraj Talal, Annika Risacher, Jasper L. Friedman, Terry O'Gara.

Global Connections

Friday, January 19, 2007

CANDA TAKES US OFF TORTURE WATCH LISTCanadian foreign minister says document 'wrongly includes some of our closest allies'Ronald Macintyre for the Toronto StarPublished: 19 January 2007

Canada's foreign ministry, responding to pressure from the United States, said on Saturday it would remove the United States and Israel from a watch list of countries where prisoners risk being tortured.

Both nations expressed unhappiness after it emerged that they had been listed in a document that formed part of a training course manual on torture awareness given to Canadian diplomats.

Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier said he regretted the embarrassment caused by the public disclosure of the manual, which also classified some US interrogation techniques as torture.

"It contains a list that wrongly includes some of our closest allies. I have directed that the manual be reviewed and rewritten," Bernier said in a statement.

The document - made available to Reuters and other media outlets - embarrassed the minority Conservative government, which is a staunch ally of both the United States and Israel.

Under "Definition of torture" the document lists US interrogation techniques such as forced nudity, isolation, sleep deprivation and blindfolding prisoners. It also mentions the US detention facility at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, where a Canadian man is being held.